Saturday, 2 November 2013

HOW FAR IS THE MOON?

The moon is the closet object we have to our planet. We have all looked up at the sky and stared at the stars and the moon, thinking about the immense size of space or possibly the man that lives in the moon.

But how big is the moon? We know space is big, and there are many universes outside of our own. Surely the moon cant be that far away as we can see it with our naked eye; and even see the craters on its surface. We landed there right? If we can build rockets that take us to the moon then surely it is close by.

However the moon is very far way. If we were to travel to the moon it would be the equivalent of going to from the UK to Australia 23 times. The distance between the moon and the Earth can vary as the moon moves closer and farther away from the Earth. This is because the moon takes a elliptical path around the Earth. At it closest point (perigee) the Moon is only 225,622 miles (363,104 km away). At it farthest point (apogee) the Moon is 252,088 miles away (406,696 km). The average measurement is used by astronauts and this is called the semi-major axis and is 238,857 miles (384,403 km).